The Campaign in Gallipoli

 As if I need more books on Gallipoli, this was my thought when faced with more at the Gallipoli Association's stall at the Battleground show. However, I relented for this memoir written by a German officer, Hans Kannengiesser. He was among the German advisors to the Ottoman Empire when the First World War broke out. Not simply as a liaison officer with the Ottoman Army, he commanded Ottoman troops in the field, including the Ottoman 9th Division.

This book gives readers a different perspective on the Gallipoli campaign fought between April 1915 and January 1916. Allied forces, primarily from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and France, attempted to secure the Gallipoli Peninsula in modern-day Turkey. The goal was to open up a sea route to Russia via the Dardanelles Strait and weaken the Ottoman Empire, a Central Powers ally. The campaign could have been better planned and executed, facing fierce Ottoman resistance and challenging terrain. It resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, over 250,000 for the Allies, and ultimately ended in a costly and humiliating Allied withdrawal.

The author was working with the Ottoman Army when war broke out, and he describes early efforts to strengthen defences on the Gallipoli Peninsula. If you are unfamiliar with the campaign, he covers all the salient points. However, the strength of this memoir is his observations on the Ottoman forces he not only advised but also led.

I have toured this battlefield, hiring a car in Istanbul, so I hadn't appreciated how poor the lines of communication were. He describes the best route as being by sea, although even warships were attacked and sunk by British submarines. The language barrier was challenging, and he often relied on inadequate translators. Not unlike much later NATO officers, it didn't occur to him to at least learn some Turkish! I'm feeling righteous, having just finished a 100-day streak on Duolingo 😁.

I hadn't appreciated how limited ammunition was, which would have reduced Allied casualties given the modest area they occupied. He also tackled the communication and coordination of Ottoman batteries. Relations with Ottoman commanders were mixed. Some ignored him when in an advisory role, but there were fewer difficulties when he directly commanded Ottoman formations. Heat and disease were constant challenges, not just for the German troops. Scurvy broke out in three battalions he commanded due to the unchanging rations and the lack of vitamins. 

The Ottomans also had a prodigious bureaucracy. Regiments and divisions had to render strength reports every 14 days, which contained 458 columns to be filled in. He complained that methods of correspondence 'were most ceremonious'. 

His personal description of the battle was interrupted when he was wounded by a machine gun bullet to the chest by the New Zealanders. On 7 September, he had recovered enough to return to the front. This is a classic 'The Other Side of the Hill' study, which has been helpfully edited by John Wilson into a very readable study.

Some of my 28mm Ottoman and British WW1 troops.